Recliner chairs and sofas are popular furniture pieces found in many living rooms across the country, as they can provide a level of comfort and relaxation that is considered unmatched by traditional chairs and sofas by many users. Over the past several years, recliner chairs and sofas have continued to evolve towards larger and heavier models that provide greater cushioning and space for their occupants, often resulting in more complex and robust recliner mechanisms and frames needed to support and carry the additional weight. However, while the exterior and visible portions of reclining furniture continues to change, the underlying recliner mechanisms which elevate and carry the various support panels (i.e. the seat rest, the back rest, the foot rest, etc.) continue to be divided into two basic types; manual actuation and powered actuation.
Manually-actuated recliners are the more popular of the two types of recliners, primarily for cost and simplicity reasons. The number of recliner models that are originally manufactured for powered actuation are often only available in limited models, styles and sizes, and typically cost several hundreds of dollars more that manually-actuated models. Consequently, most recliner models are originally manufactured for manual actuation. Even if the model, style and size of a particular manually-actuated recliner includes an option for powered actuation, special modifications must be made at the factory prior to assembly to make the piece suitable for powered actuation. As a result, many recliner models with power actuation often require special ordering and extended wait times to before the furniture can be delivered to the point of sale.
There are times, however, when a customer may change his or her mind after ordering a lower-cost manually-actuated recliner, and wish instead to purchase the same recliner with powered actuation, and preferably for the same cost differential. Even if available, however, this change in the sales order may still result in additional costs and significant delivery delays, which may prompt the customer to cancel the sale altogether and purchase from another supplier. In other cases, the end user may change his mind after taking delivery and using the recliner for a period of time, and then decide that powered actuation is a preferred option and worth the additional cost. However, since the reclining furniture piece has already been delivered, the time, effort and cost to ship the recliner back to the factory for retrofitting to powered actuation, in addition to the cost of the conversion itself, is prohibitive.
Moreover, retail sellers often must pre-order either manual or powered recliners, where display floor space is limited. A customer may prefer a certain style that is only shown in manual configuration. Even if that style is available in a powered version (where often it is not), the customer is forced to wait 2-3 months for an eventual delivery. Such a delay can lead to customer frustration at the least and a lost sale at the worst. The retail seller lacks a method of converting on-site a manual recliner to a powered recliner.
Accordingly, it can be seen that a need exists for a method and apparatus for converting a recliner from manual actuation to powered actuation at a field or point-of-sale location that addresses the foregoing and various other related and unrelated problems in the art.